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Thursday, July 7, 2011

Summer Writing Prompts for Kids #2 : Tattle Jar

It's that time of year again - the time I want to ship every blasted one of my kids to a remote African village. At the top of my "Reasons why shipping my kids far away is reasonable" list is TATTLING. It comes in every form, from every age of kid, and it never ever ever ends.

A few years ago I put Operation Tattle Jar into effect and it yielded pretty good results, so I am re-instituting it this week. It serves two purposes: 1) I only have to address children's grievances once a day, and 2) It's great writing practice for the kids. Here's how it's done.

Choose a container of any sort (I'm a simple person & grabbed a Mason jar but anything including super-cute stuff will work) and label it TATTLE JAR (or BOX or whatever fits).

Put slips of PAPER and PENCILS into it.

State the RULES clearly. They are simple. If you have a complaint, write it down. Mom will not listen to verbal complaints. She will only read them once a day (dinner table or your choice of time) and give her verdict.

After the first few days, the kids will only write it down if they feel very strongly about the infraction. It serves as a great way to discuss issues with the kids, it cuts down on all the reporting, and I pretty much guarantee it will make you laugh more than once.

The first Tattle Jar complaint I received was: "Seth called me a platypus!"

1 comment:

Love this idea! And thanks for posting about the UVU Conference. We are excited to have you on board. Hope the yodeling is coming along.P.S. Loved your column about the parking space. How brave and kind of you.